1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a call distribution method. The call distribution method according to the invention can be used in a network usually including one or more interconnected telephone exchanges to which telephone terminals or extensions are connected. Some of the telephone terminals or extensions are used to respond to telephone calls from users requesting services or information. The calls are set up via interface circuits which enable user terminals or extensions to communicate with a call distribution facility used by the method according to the invention.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Call distribution methods have changed greatly since they were first introduced. Nowadays, the systems which implement them usually include a large software component. They are integrated into telephone exchanges, more particularly into private branch exchanges. These private branch exchanges are made available to companies whose employees and customers are often the users. Many companies are therefore able to provide very sophisticated services or information on demand.
Call distribution facilities are therefore often a means of direct communication between companies and their customers. The quality of service that they offer therefore makes a great contribution to the appreciation of the company by its customers. The essential function of the various call distribution methods is to route telephone calls to an operator able to respond to the need.
Various criteria can come into play during the operations which distribute a call to an operator via a call distribution facility. The purpose of the call or the time for which the caller has already been waiting are routinely taken into account. The operating personnel responsible for supervising a call distribution facility use various criteria to provide the best possible response to the caller""s enquiry, allowing for the processing capacity, manpower and machine capacity available at the time. Obviously a call distribution facility must answer a call as quickly as possible.
Prior art call distribution methods include methods using distribution facilities organized with different queues so that callers can be distributed according to the availability of operators and priorities can be assigned to callers according to how long their respective calls have been waiting.
There are also automatic call distribution solutions which globally optimize the processing of calls to processing groups made up of several agents having similar skills. However, these automatic distribution solutions do not offer a refined selection of the most appropriate agents for the caller and their particular characteristics.
Prior art intelligent call routers use various criteria to select one or more agents particularly suitable for the expectations of a caller. However, they are incapable of achieving an optimum distribution in terms of waiting time if there is no agent able to respond to a caller immediately.
To alleviate these various problems, the invention proposes a method of automatically distributing calls to agents having skills best suited to the expectations of callers, combined with a very fast response.
To this end, the method according to the invention uses a step of characterizing callers. A call profile is established for each call received so that it is possible to flag a caller and their expectations by assigning them a number of attributes. Each agent has defined their skills beforehand and a supervisor of the distribution facility has a set of agent profiles. Each agent profile contains essential characteristics of an agent who is then associated with a set of attributes. Accordingly, each caller and each agent are defined by a respective set of attributes, preferably on the basis of a single list of available attributes. An ordered list of agents qualified to respond to the call is drawn up for each call. The ordered list of agents allows for the call profile and the attributes of each agent and a hierarchy is established in the ordered list of agents who can answer the call on the basis of a calculation method referred to as cost calculation.
The ordered list of agents is transmitted to a call distribution facility. In one preferred application of the invention the method of the invention uses a distribution facility of the type described in French patent application 96 12184. That distribution facility is hereby incorporated by reference into the present document and is not described in detail hereinafter. It further proposes:
primary distribution first means for selecting a transit unit for a call reaching a call-director, the selection being made as a function of a minimum cost obtained by comparing costs established on the basis of indications characteristic of the present situations of each of the transit units capable at that time of being put into communication with said call-director;
downstream secondary distribution second means for selecting a processing group for a call that has reached a transit unit that was previously empty of calls; the selection being as a function of a minimum cost obtained by comparing costs established on the basis of indications characteristic of the present situations of each of the processing groups capable at that time of being put into communication with said transit unit;
upstream secondary distribution third means for selecting a transit unit for processing a call waiting in said unit as soon as an agent becomes available for processing, selection being as a function of a maximum cost obtained by comparing costs established on the basis of indications characteristic of the situations present in each of the transit units capable at that time of being put into communication with the processing group of which the available agent forms a part; and
tertiary distribution fourth means for selecting an available agent in a processing group to take account of a call coming from a transit unit, on the basis of indications characteristic of the situation present in the processing group with which said transit unit has been put into communication.
A particular call distribution architecture for implementing the method according to the invention is also proposed.
The invention therefore provides a method of distributing telephone calls to provide users of extensions and/or terminals of a telecommunications network with access to a service provided by an agent or operator, the method using a call-director which receives telephone calls which access a service and can use various modes associated with different routing directions, which routing directions can associate with each call a pseudo-queue, or a waiting room, or a queue, a group of processing operators and a transit unit for calls received via a call-director and awaiting processing by an operator, the method including the steps of determining agent profiles, determining a call profile, comparing the call profile to the agent profiles to constitute an ordered list of agents qualified to process a call, and distributing a call to agents from the list of agents.
The transit units employed in the call distribution facility used by the method according to the invention can be of various types: there can be waiting rooms, queues or pseudo-queues.
A queue is used to hold calls awaiting processing temporarily and if necessary before processing of the calls is started by operators of a processing set. The order in which calls parked in a queue are passed to the processing system can be of the first-in/first-out type, so that the order of arrival of the calls is preserved.
A waiting room is also used to hold calls awaiting processing temporarily. Unlike a queue, however, the order in which calls parked in a waiting room are passed to the processing system is not of the first-in/first-out type, but depends on a mechanism described below.
A pseudo-queue is used for calls which do not in fact have to wait, because of how they will be processed. A pseudo-queue is used, for example, for calls to be rerouted and for calls whose continuation is to be discouraged. Such calls are usually switched to an answering system which uses a spoken message to discourage callers, for example to ask them not to call back before a particular time period because the processing system is overloaded.
In one particular application of the invention, a call-director can adopt various modes associated with different routing directions. If a call reaching a call-director is allocated a call profile, the call-director is said to be in open mode. On the other hand, if for any reason, for example saturation of the means for allocating a call profile, a call reaching a call-director cannot be allocated a call profile, the call-director is said to be in blocked mode. Accordingly, a call-director in open mode distributes calls to routing directions associated either with pseudo-queues or with waiting rooms and a call-director in blocked mode distributes calls to routing directions associated either with pseudo-queues or with queues. Routing directions associated with a queue and routing directions associated with a waiting room can be preferred or back-up routing directions that never co-exist in the same mode.
In a preferred configuration of the call distribution facility used by the method according to the invention, a waiting room can be used by more than one call-director and a waiting room can be served by more than one distribution direction.
Various aspects and advantages of the invention will become more clearly apparent in the course of the following description, which is given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are provided entirely by way of non-limiting and illustrative example of the invention.